Dielectric Photonic Crystal Slabs: Leaky-Wave Radiation from an Embedded 2-D Electric Line Source

This paper presents an overview of our analytical and numerical methods to design radiative structures based on photonic crystals by means of leaky-wave theory. In particular, we present several parametric studies to justify the choice of the design parameters. Based on these studies, we show how it is possible to design highly directive devices in which the radiation can be described by a properly excited dominant leaky mode. The proposed design procedure can be easily extended to a wide class of structures, leading to the construction of sensors and antennas with high radiation efficiency and directivity.